il faut qu'elle se fasse de seule puissance absolue de la
royne, voyre avec danger." In other parts of France, as well as in Bearn,
Jeanne's reformatory movements were looked upon with great disfavor. Upon
a glass window at Limoges (made about the year 1564, and still in
existence, I believe) she is represented, by way of derision, as herself
in the pulpit, and preaching to a congregation of eight Huguenots seated.
Underneath is the bitter couplet,

"Mal sont les gens endoctrines
Quand par femme sont sermones."

M. Hennin, Monuments de l'hist. de France, Paris, 1863, tome ix.
(1559-1589) 76. The statement that this and a somewhat similar
representation, also described in this work, came from an old abbey, whose
monks thus revenged themselves upon the queen for removing their pulpit,
seems to be a mistake.

[323] Letter of Merlin, _ubi supra_, 239: "Brief c'est merveille que ceste
princesse puisse persister constamment en son sainct vouloir." Cf. letter
of same, Dec. 25, 1563, 245.

[324] Letter of Merlin, Dec. 25, 1563, _ubi supra_, 245.

[325] "Recit d'une entreprise faite en l'an 1565 contre la Reine de
Navarre et messeigneurs les enfans," etc., etc.; Cimber et Danjou,
Archives curieuses, vi. 281-295. The year should be 1564. The best
authority is, however, that of De Thou, iii. (liv. xxxvi.) 496-499, who
states that he simply gives the account as he had it from the lips of
Secretary Rouleau, who brought the tidings to France, and from the
children of the domestic of Isabella who detected the conspiracy. See,
also, Leon Feer, in Bulletin, xxvi. (1877), 207, etc., 279, etc.

[326] Michel de l'Hospital frankly told Santa Croce that the misfortunes
of France came exclusively from the French themselves, "e della vita dei
preti, molto sregolata, i quali non vogliono esser riformati, e
principalmente quelli del Concilio, e poi nelle loro lettere rejiciunt
culpam in Papam." "Io so," adds the nuncio himself, "che sono loro che non
vogliono esser riformati, e hanno mandati di qua certi articoli che hanno
parimente mandati a Roma, circa gli quali io vi posso dir che se Sua
Santita li accordasse, conformamente alle loro petitioni, sariano i piu
malcontenti del mondo; ma no le hanno fatte ad altro fine che per haver
occasione di mostrar di qua, che il Papa e quello che non vuole, mentre
che sono loro che non vogliono quella riformatione del clero." Santa Croce
to Borromeo, March 28, 1563, Aymon, i. 230, 231; Cimber